The month of July always begins with a big bang, as we celebrate Independence Day, the birth of our Nation. Also called the Fourth of July, it is celebrated with parades, picnics, and fireworks at night.

Meanwhile, our neighbors to the north celebrate their birthday this month. This holiday is appropriately called Canada Day, previously called “Dominion Day.”

And there are several other July National days and International days, too. One I’m especially attracted to is July 9, National Sugar Cookie Day. This is such a popular and easy to make cookie. And it’s so versatile. This dough, typically flavored with vanilla extract, also does really well flavored with lemon extract and the inclusion of lemon zest. Same goes for flavoring with orange extract and orange zest.

But my all-time favorite way of jazzing up a sugar cookie dough is with coconut emulsion. From there I create a sandwich cookie I call “Coconut Oooh-Aaahs.” Just make your coconut-flavored cookie rounds, top half your rounds with a tablespoon of sweetened shredded coconut, then finish by placing the remaining rounds atop these. Pinch both rounds together to seal in the tablespoon of coconut and bake as usual. You can garnish them by sprinkling each sandwich with a little pearl sugar if you wish. I hope one of you makes these and reports back.

But back to holidays: Of course, July has lots of monthly designations that are also worth noticing. For instance:

• National Cell Phone Courtesy Month
• National Dog Days of Summer – July 3 – August 11
• National Anti-Boredom Month
• National Park and Recreation Month
• National Grilling Month
• National Picnic Month
• National Hot Dog Month
• National Ice Cream Month
• National Watermelon Month
• National Blueberry Month

Aren’t we grateful we live in peace in a land with so many reasons to celebrate? My heart truly overflows with gratitude. (I’m especially grateful for anyone that has enough sense to practice cell phone courtesy, and really happy the whole idea gets its own month! But that’s a topic for another day.)

All this said, and in reverence for National Hot Dog Month, I’ll close with a recipe for a hot dog sauce that’s actually a Utah phenomenon. A BYU student, Jayson Edwards (who was always looking for good food), was walking home from class one day when he spotted an old shack near campus and decided that it would be a perfect spot for a business. But not just any business. This would be where folks could get a scored all-beef dog served with a special sauce. He created the sauce and started criss-cross-scoring his dogs, and the rest is history—J Dawgs history, to be exact.

So for your National Hot Dog Month dining pleasure, here’s the recipe for Jayson’s special DAWG sauce! (Oh, and he went on to win BYU’s 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year award and has since opened up several other J Dawg shops throughout Utah!)

Add Recipe to Cook'n